Category: News

Freddie Gibbs has been around the block in the music industry before blowing up on a greater level last year but that doesn’t mean he’s gotten used to the trappings of fame. While hanging out with Diddy at his home, Gibbs was amused at some of the house’s amenities. Posting a video to Twitter, Gibbs expressed his amazement that, among other things, the man formerly known as Puff Daddy has a full-fledged restaurant in his house.

While recording a selfie video, Gibbs gains Diddy’s attention, calling him a “fly-ass young n****” and prompting Diddy to show off a bottle of his Ciroc vodka and begin singing along to the Marvin Gaye song playing over the P.A. (It’s “I Want You,” by the way).

Freddie, who’s become one of hip-hop’s most celebrated artists over the past year thanks to his joint album with Alchemist, Alfredo, and its Grammy nomination for Best Rap Album, may be experiencing a new level of success, but clearly, he’s still humble enough to crack jokes at his own expense and use fake Instagrams to mock his rivals. His humility is one of the things that makes him so easy to root for — and his amazement at Diddy’s extravagance might just be the most relatable things he’s shared yet.

Freddie Gibbs is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Australian songwriter Tori Zietsch is gearing up to release her debut album under the Maple Glider moniker in a few short months. To Enjoy Is The Only Thing finds Zietsch armed with little more than an intimate, ethereal voice and understated instrumentation, but the low-key vibe of the music gives the raw power of her songwriting full space to shine. We’ve only heard a handful of tracks from the LP so far, but it’s already shaping up to be one of the most exciting debuts of 2021.

To celebrate the forthcoming album, Zietsch sat down to talk getting tattoos with friends, hating Bacardi, and more in the latest Indie Mixtape 20 Q&A.

What are four words you would use to describe your music?

It’s 2050 and the world hasn’t ended and people are still listening to your music. How would you like it to be remembered?

In a thick country twang.

What’s your favorite city in the world to perform?

Home in Naarm/Melbourne because I get to smoosh my friends faces after.

Who’s the person who has most inspired your work, and why?

If I didn’t have such a beautiful community of people around me it would be much harder to pursue a music career. I’d still be writing sappy songs, you’d probably just never have heard them.

Where did you eat the best meal of your life?

I love food sooo much. I’ve had so many best meals. Sometimes the best meals are just snacks you eat in a bubble bath. It feels kind of cheeky but so great. In Portugal I’d eat a juicy peach for breakfast each morning and I was so damn happy. And campfire meals! Don’t get me started. I remember one time camping in France and we ate chestnuts and camembert and fish that had been smoked on the fire. Just wow. The other week my partner and I went for a walk and we ended up spending most of the time picking blackberries and then made blackberry and apple pie and it was so good. Also when you’re with a friend and you decide to be fancy and eat oysters and drink sparkling wine and you feel like the moment will never end and maybe you’re just fancy forever now and then the bubbles start to wear off and you’re like “where are the hot chips at?”

What album do you know every word to?

Haha. No album. I’m the worst. I might think I know all the lyrics to some of my favourite albums but even then most of the time I’m probably just making weird sounds that feel like words but aren’t.

What was the best concert you’ve ever attended?

I’ll tell you the best concert I never attended was Julia Holter in Brighton. I went for a nap a couple of hours before the show’s start and didn’t wake until 11pm. I’m still upset about it.

What is the best outfit for performing and why?

The more fabulous the better. I can be pretty tacky. My favourite are my purple glitter platform boots with stars on them. I bought them at a vintage shop when I lived in the UK and they are completely ridiculous but also amazing.

Who’s your favorite person to follow on Twitter and/or Instagram?

@mooodbored and @animalsdoingthings on instagram.

What’s your most frequently played song in the van on tour?

I haven’t really had that experience yet, but I definitely want everything Chaka Khan.

What’s the last thing you Googled?

MASS LESS PARTICLES.

What album makes for the perfect gift?

Nina Simone – In Concert.

Where’s the weirdest place you’ve ever crashed while on tour?

Living room floor of an after-party I really didn’t want to be at haha.

What’s the story behind your first or favorite tattoo?

I have 3 different matching BFF tattoos. One is a lil love heart on my ankle and is my first ever tattoo that I got with one of my best friends in her ex’s tattoo shop during a night out. My most recent matching tattoo is a ‘Fang it’ tattoo on my arm that Madison Griffiths (Naarm-based writer/artist) stick and poked for my good friend and I on her bedroom floor and it was the best.

What artists keep you from flipping the channel on the radio?

Diana Ross, Adrianne Lenker, Cher.

What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you?

Mum went through childbirth for me so that probably tops it

What’s one piece of advice you’d go back in time to give to your 18-year-old self?

Bacardi is disgusting, put that down.

What’s the last show you went to?

My friend Amarina Waters played at a bar near my house called Some Velvet Morning and she made me cry twice and it was very beautiful.

What movie can you not resist watching when it’s on TV?

Look I don’t have free to air TV and this isn’t a movie but how good is PEN15?

To Enjoy Is The Only Thing is out June 25 via Partisan Records. Pre-order here.

Following the breakout success of her 2018 sophomore album Historian, along with her subsequent Boygenius project with Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker, fans have been waiting for a new album from Lucy Dacus. Thankfully, Dacus announced her third studio album Home Video this week, and she celebrated with a performance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.

Backed by a full band for the performance, Dacus brought her reflective ballad “Hot & Heavy” to a grand, empty theater. In a statement alongside the single, Dacus said that it was inspired by the realization that she’s grown into a different person:

“I thought I was writing ‘Hot & Heavy’ about an old friend, but I realized along the way that it was just about me outgrowing past versions of myself. So much of life is submitting to change and saying goodbye even if you don’t want to. Now whenever I go to places that used to be significant to me, it feels like trespassing the past. I know that the teen version of me wouldn’t approve of me now, and that’s embarrassing and a little bit heartbreaking, even if I know intellectually that I like my life and who I am.”

Watch Dacus perform “Hot & Heavy” on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert above.

Home Video is out 6/25 via Matador. Pre-order it here.

Last week, Paramount announced that it was once again pushing back the release of its two major Tom Cruise blockbusters, Top Gun: Maverick and Mission: Impossible 7. Considering how the theatrical release model, both domestically and internationally, is still in flux due to the pandemic, the delay isn’t a total surprise even if Paramount had previously said they were “in good shape” as the incoming Biden administration rolled out its aggressive vaccine distribution plan. In short, juggling release dates is going to be a common occurrence for a while.

However, a new report says that part of the decision to knock Top Gun: Maverick from the summer to November was based on Cruise’s desire to “embark on a world tour,” which was not looking good as Europe and Japan started going into lockdown. By moving the film deep into the Fall, there’s a better chance of Cruise rolling out a full-on press tour, which carries a lot of weight.

“Tom Cruise is one of the few stars who can move the needle by doing late night shows and premieres across the world,” a studio exec told The Hollywood Reporter.

This reasoning also jibes with previous reports that Paramount wants to ensure that Top Gun: Maverick, and Mission: Impossible 7, have strong performances at the global box office. Despite other studios pivoting to streaming, Paramount has held fast on releasing the Cruise blockbusters theatrically, and if it has to wait a little while longer to give them a proper premiere, so be it.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

There’s nothing like coming “home,” which could be said of Kate Winslet’s return to HBO in Mare of Easttown, one decade after her Emmy-winning turn in Mildred Pierce. This is also true, in a metaphorical sense, of Winslet’s title character in HBO’s new limited series, Mare of Easttown, although this character is living in a perpetual homecoming when she’s never left home in the first place. The show’s a lot of things: character study, world-building portrait of small-town life, and crime drama with (here’s the kicker) a sharp-witted dramedy embedded within the confines. It must also be noted that this show wasn’t exactly well-served by the show’s trailer. Sure, people expect a quality project when Kate Winslet is involved, but the trailer forecast yet another “gritty” cop drama focused upon a world-weary, probably hard-drinking, “complicated” protagonist. Yes, Winslet does embody that trope of a TV-cop, but this show ain’t overly gritty, even if the drab color palette would suggest otherwise.

Instead, Mare of Easttown, which is very serious in subject matter, is also quite charming at times. It will lure you in with a slow-burning first few episodes as we get to know our protagonist by how others perceive her, and then all (controlled) hell breaks loose. Kate Winslet doing a Philadelphia-adjacent accent then becomes only one of the main draws; she is thoroughly fascinating. Mare’s a hard-vaping cop with a mysterious tragedy scratching away at her underneath the surface, and she’s captivating to those who enter Easttown, although those who have known her forever tend to forget that she’s, well, human. Mare Sheehan never left her childhood stomping grounds; and although she doggedly serves the small town’s residents on a daily basis as a detective (who does it all, from chasing down apparent burglars to answering house calls for those who’d rather call her cell than the PD’s main line), she’s famed in the community for a high-school basketball shot. In this way, Mare’s a familiar face and comforting presence, but she’s still somehow an outsider within her own community.

The show spins an engrossing yarn while navigating an engaging mystery, as Winslet holds it together as a woman on the verge, who’s helping everyone but herself in a town that’s cannibalizing itself. I’d really like someone to let Mare have enough time to you, know, eat a damn sandwich in peace because that’s good for the soul, but that is not in the cards here. As if that wasn’t enough, Mare’s professional abilities are called into question, and her boss pulls in a young whippersnapper of a county detective to help clean up the mess. Evan Peters (who’s still pulling off the chameleon thing, as with AHS and WandaVision) turns out to be a friggin’ delight as Colin Zabel (yes, his name sure sounds like that of director Craig Zobel), whose audience-POV reactions to Mare and Easttown are one of the greatest pleasures of this series. He’s nearly aghast at how Mare is either related to or “friends” with everyone in this town, and how everyone casually treats each other terribly while also having each other’s backs.

Like Mare, the show’s a scrappy one, at once showcasing exhaustion while also intriguing viewers. This dual-naturedness is captured by writer Brad Ingelsby (The Way Back), who hails from Pennsylvania, close to where the series is set, and who takes great pains to authentically nail the often-claustrophobic feel of small-town life. Seriously, imagine being a detective who starts to unfurl a murder, and every piece of the puzzle points to someone you’ve known for most of your life. That’s Mare’s exasperating dilemma, and Ingelsby also clearly enjoyed painting Easttown, too, as a character while burrowing into a gruesome crime that rocks the close-knit community.

The mystery takes off. Mare of Easttown is at once a sprawling, take-your-time, seven-part series (for which critics screened five episodes) and an inferno. It’ll get suck you in and refuse to let you go, and even though the show dives into some bleak material, the series doesn’t emerge as anything resembling grief porn (and thank god for that). Winslet manages to both gamely and subtly portray the stereotypical cop who’s found in plentiful supply all over TV, and you know the type: too busy cleaning up the world, so their family life suffers, and their inner self crumbles. They inevitably f*ck up at home, over and over again; they can’t cope with the thought of maintaining a personal life after they lose what’s near and dear to them; and yes, this is not new. Winslet, however, fashions her character into a revelation. She’s got an arsenal of countless tiny gestures that, at once, tell us a lot about Mare but leave us wanting more. She’s much more than a f*cked-up TV cop who’s been on an unsolvable case for a year.

I’ve already mentioned Evan Peters as a wonderful side player, oh, and there are more. The show’s heavy on the HBO talent, given that it’s directed by Cobel (The Leftovers and Westworld), and the incredible cast includes Jean Smart (following up on Watchmen) and Julianne Nicholson (from The Outsider), whose characters both inform us of Mare’s personal life while observing how she responds to the show’s central mystery. Former Mildred Pierce co-star Guy Pearce surfaces as a love interest and an outsider and a one-time big-shot novelist. All are great here, but Smart, especially, is a natural treasure (although we already knew this from Fargo, Dirty John, and Watchmen). She brilliantly brings a necessary spark of comedy, and Jean Smart is the banisher of all things dreary. If she wasn’t about to star in her own HBO Max show (for Michael Schur), I’d already be calling for a “Mare’s Mom” spinoff.

Mare of Easttown is a pleasure to watch, with everyone in Mare’s orbit, and vice versa, as she circles in on the show’s main mystery. The horrific details of that puzzle are best left to your discovery, so that you can watch things unfold while Mare tries to extricate every local pain in her butt from sniffing around if they’re not indirectly tied to what happened. And it’s so much fun to watch Mare frustratedly deal with obstacles, despite the dark subject matter, and to watch Winslet piece together clues with the simplest of actions while there’s clearly so many inner workings underneath that surface. While standing still and doing nothing at all, while limping through a sprained ankle, and even while vaping, Winslet somehow does a lot. She’s a force of nature while eating some unappetizing pizza or stuffing a fancy hors d’oeuvre into a couch (please, someone get her a solid sandwich, because she’s earned it). All the while, Mare’s deconstructing herself and Easttown and working to save the soul of her community. I’m not sure that the residents deserve her, but HBO viewers deserve to get hooked on this series.

HBO’s ‘Mare of Easttown’ premieres on Sunday, April 18.

While the idea of Jenny Lewis reuniting with the Postal Service for new music is very unlikely, the singer has been working on a new, quarantine-born project. Lewis and Chicago musician Serengeti virtually collaborated on a handful of electric tracks including “Vroom Vroom,” “Unblu,” and the most recent “Idiot.” Sharing yet another iPhone-recorded visual, Lewis and Serengeti debut the lively collaboration “GLTR.”

Over shuffling synths and an urgent beat, the two musicians detail the myth of social media. “How’s your Instagram these days? / Did you get a lotta action when you had braids? / Looked good on that beach that time near the maze,” Serengeti sings before Lewis repeats the lyric, “What a lie.”

In a statement about the track, Serengeti said he hopes that it inspires listeners to leave their phone at home. “[It’s] a nice song about getting out of your head and having a time. Getting out a little bit. Getting out of bed and enjoying some things. Maybe putting down the phone for a sec.”

Lewis and Serengeti’s collaboration happened by chance. Ahead of the pandemic, Lewis was set to embark on a massive North American tour opening for Harry Styles in support of his Fine Line album. But after the shut down of the live music industry, Lewis hunkered down at home and decided to start a very DIY project with Serengeti. The five tracks they made for their project were all recorded on Jenny’s iPhone, along with each of their accompanying videos.

Watch Lewis and Serengeti’s “GLTR” video above.

Jenny Lewis is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

American ice cream gurus Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield are no strangers to taking a stance on political causes under the corporate Ben & Jerry’s umbrella. They regularly help organize and support climate marches, and last year, the company offered a strong stance (amid the George Floyd protests) to support Black Lives Matter, and they’re doing it again following the police shooting and killing of Daunte Wright after officer Kim Potter reportedly meant to deploy her taser and then “accidentally” (according to Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon via ABC News) shot Wright. Multiple nights of civil unrest have followed, and earlier this week, the Ben & Jerry’s Twitter account took a stand, arguing for rebuilding the system and defunding police departments.

“The murder of #DaunteWright is rooted in white supremacy and results from the intentional criminalization of Black and Brown communities,” tweeted Ben & Jerrys. “This system can’t be reformed. It must be dismantled and a real system of public safety rebuilt from the ground up. #DefundThePolice.”

This move has followed the conservative criticism of other corporations (including Coca-Cola and MLB) for taking a stand in Georgia over voter suppression. Naturally, the far-right’s response to these stances is to want to “cancel” the brands, which is ironic, considering how much they complain about “cancel culture.” The same silliness is following Ben & Jerry’s declaration.

In other words, an ice cream war is brewing. On one side, you’ve got foot stomping.

Elsewhere, people are surprised that some are only now noticing that Ben & Jerry’s takes stances on issues. And some are also pointing out that, beyond everything else, “the product Ben and Jerry’s makes tastes much better than My Pillow.” Ouch.

In addition to all of the Ben & Jerry’s love out there, there’s also plenty of people reminding Posobiec about the 2015 Listeria outbreak that’s tied to Blue Bell. So, it looks like Ben & Jerry’s will keep on standing for multiple reasons.

Thanks to his bookish knowledge of pop culture and gift for storytelling, The Roots drummer Questlove has become one of music’s foremost historians — albeit, an informal one, in most cases. So, it’s fitting that his next book is titled Music Is History and will take on the task of examing the last 50 years of pop culture through the lens of the music that inspired it and was inspired it. The book is due in October through Abrams Image.

According to a press release, in the new book, Questlove will choose an “essential” track he believes defines each year, and “unpacks each song’s significance, revealing the pivotal role that American music plays around issues of race, gender, politics, and identity.”

Choosing the year 1971 as the book’s starting point, Quest gives it a link to his own personal history — he recently celebrated his own 50th birthday — and will also include personal anecdotes to highlight the way grand themes like race and politics can have a huge impact on the individual, as well. Topics will include the blaxploitation era, disco, and “the secret ingredient in all funk songs,” which will also be the theme of one of the playlists Questlove is curating to promote the new book. He’ll also be recording the audiobook version, releasing it through Recorded Books.

Rock band Greta Van Fleet has a new album, The Battle At Garden’s Gate, coming out on Friday. Environmental activist Greta Thunberg does not have an album dropping this week. Somebody should tell that to Liam Gallagher, as he seems to have gotten the two confused.

A few days ago, somebody tweeted at the former Oasis member, asking, “Are you excited for Greta Van Fleet’s new album to come out on Friday?” He responded, “She’s amazing I love her work esp for climate change.”

It’s entirely possible Gallagher was joking, of course. If he genuinely thought that Greta Van Fleet was Thunberg, though, then it’s a hilarious misunderstanding. That said, it wouldn’t actually be that outlandish for Gallagher to think that Thunberg is releasing an album, really, as she’s not a stranger to recorded music: Last year, she featured on The 1975’s self-titled song from the album Notes On A Conditional Form, on which she speaks about the state of the planet.

Gallagher’s tweet came on a day when he was particularly active in responding to fans on Twitter. For example, one person asked, “how does it feel knowing that more than 1 billion people have heard your voice sing wonderwall?” He came back with a cheeky response: “I feel happy for them.”

The Battle At Garden’s Gate is out 4/16 via Lava/Republic. Pre-order it here.

The first trailer for F9 came out in January 2020, which was over a year ago in case you forgot how months work because time has lost all meaning. The ninth movie in the Fast & Furious franchise was scheduled to come out on April 19, 2019 (blame Hobbs & Shaw) until it was pushed back to April 10, 2020, and again to May 22 (blame the pandemic), then April 2, 2021, then May 28, but now on June 25, we’ll finally, FINALLY, get to see the magnet plane, Helen Mirren driving, John Cena as Dom Toretto’s brother, and not-dead Han. Also, based on the trailer above, the dream of having a Fast and Furious movie set in space might become a reality. They did it. Those bastards really did it.

Here’s the official plot synopsis:

Dom Toretto is leading a quiet life off the grid with Letty and his son, little Brian, but they know that danger always lurks just over their peaceful horizon. This time, that threat will force Dom to confront the sins of his past if he’s going to save those he loves most. His crew joins together to stop a world-shattering plot led by the most skilled assassin and high-performance driver they’ve ever encountered: a man who also happens to be Dom’s forsaken brother, Jakob. F9 sees the return of Justin Lin as director, who helmed the third, fourth, fifth and sixth chapters of the series when it transformed into a global blockbuster. The action hurtles around the globe — from London to Tokyo, from Central America to Edinburgh, and from a secret bunker in Azerbaijan to the teeming streets of Tbilisi. Along the way, old friends will be resurrected, old foes will return, history will be rewritten, and the true meaning of family will be tested like never before..

F9 stars Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, John Cena, Jordana Brewster, Nathalie Emmanuel, Sung Kang, Helen Mirren, and Charlize Theron.